Next to mortgage payments and building costs, maintenance costs are another expensive aspect of owning a home. Even if your home is as sustainable as possible, these costs still apply and get worse with age. Enter the Maintenance-Free House, designed by developers Realdania BYG and Arkitema Architects of Denmark, in collaboration with the Danish Technological Institute.(more…)

In early 2014 the company DesignDevelop proposed Project Gregory, which involved building shelters around billboards. This would allow the shelters to rent out advertising space and use the money to finance their running costs. The company now says they could build the first such shelter by early 2015.(more…)

The recently completed Zero Emission Buildings (ZEB) Pilot House, designed by the architecture firm Snøhetta in partnership with Norway’s Research Center on Zero Emission Buildings, is a family home that is capable of producing nearly three times as much energy as is required to power it. The additional energy can be fed back into the grid, or used to charge an electric car.(more…)

The so/called Happy Cheap House is a prototype for low-cost prefab homes and it was designed by Swedish architect Tommy Carlsson. The home is clad in corrugated iron and boasts of an innovative shape, which makes it both unique as well as more functional than a traditional home. The Happy Cheap House measures 110-square-metres and its design is focused on optimizing the internal space. This is a two-story home, with the ground floor consisting of an open plan living room, dining room and kitchen. The first floor, on the other hand, consists of two bedrooms and a lounge.(more…)

Downsizing is becoming a priority for many in this new economic reality, and while the innovative Taku-Tanku home by the company Stereotank, may not be adequate as a permanent residence, it does make for a very sustainable cabin or tent alternative. Once assembled, it is even light enough to be towed on the back of a bicycle.(more…)

The firm James&Mau Arquitectura designed an innovative home in the picturesque Tarragona Province, Spain. The house was built by Infinski and instead of using shipping containers as the main building blocks, the builders chose to use 4 prefabricated metal modules made of Corten Steel. The finished home is called Mint House and comes with a number of sustainable features.(more…)